Senior Software Development Engineer, Payroll Development

Workday, Inc.; Auckland; On-site; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday, Inc. seeks a Senior Software Development Engineer for the Payroll Development team in the APAC region. You will bridge engineers building payroll capabilities with services teams implementing for customers in multiple countries.

Your role supports AI toolset development with field feedback. You will align with implementation teams, design and deploy production-grade software, and troubleshoot live environments while enabling the broader team through training and knowledge sharing.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience building, shipping, and maintaining production-grade code.
• Experience integrating software with external systems, APIs, and enterprise data sources.
• 3-5+ years experience on Workday Payroll.
• Bachelor's degree in CS, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Align with customer implementations to understand technical environment, data, and country requirements.
• Design, build, and deploy production-grade software and integrations in live environments.
• Lead end-to-end technical delivery: discovery, scoping, architecture, implementation, testing, rollout.
• Integrate payroll systems with customer data sources, APIs, and identity/access systems.
• Troubleshoot production issues in real time and in undefined problem spaces.
• Feed field learnings into product and AI toolset improvements.
• Serve as a trusted technical partner for engineering and business stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Implementation partners across the region.
• Train deployment toolsets and enable teams on payroll capabilities and rollout processes.
• Travel or work on-site with customers as needed.

Skills

Software engineering

Workday Payroll experience

APIs & external systems integration

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

CI/CD, containers, IaC

Stakeholder communication

On-site travel

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

Your work days are brighter here.

We're obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we're shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you'll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We're in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun-drenched optimism and drive. Whether you're building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you'll do meaningful work with Workmates who've got your back. In return, we'll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you've found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too.

About the Team

You'll join the APAC Payroll Country Factory Team, the group building new native Workday payrolls across the APAC and ASEAN region. We're using AI-driven tools and processes to dramatically increase both the number and speed of countries we can bring onto Workday payroll. It's a region with enormous growth, and this team is at the center of making that growth possible for our customers.

About the Role

As a Senior Software Development Engineer on the Payroll Development team, you are a key component of the Global Payroll mission: the link between the engineers building new payroll capability and the professional services and solutions teams (both Workday and Partners) implementing it for customers in each country. Your work keeps those two sides aligned and engaged, so implementations land successfully and at high quality.

You'll also help shape the AI toolsets development and implementation teams rely on, feeding your field experience back in to make those tools faster and more accurate over time.

In this role, you will:

• Align with implementation teams on customer projects to understand their technical environment, data, and country-specific requirements
• Collaborate on design, build, and deployment of production-grade software and integrations inside live customer and partner environments to support Partners and/or our CX team members for new payroll deployments in new regions, not demos or proofs of concept
• Collaborate on technical delivery end-to-end: discovery, scoping, architecture, implementation, testing, and rollout
• Guide integration of payroll systems with customer data sources, APIs, and identity/access systems
• Help troubleshoot and resolve implementation and production issues in real time, often in undefined problem spaces
• Turn field learnings and recurring implementation needs into feedback that improves the core product and the AI toolset
• Act as a trusted technical partner for implementation teams' engineering and business stakeholders
• Work closely with product, engineering, and implementation partners across the region
• Help train and enable the deployment toolset on new capabilities, workflows, and lessons learned from the field
• Train Customer Experience team members in partnership with the Product Optimization and Acceleration (PAO) team on payroll functionality, deployment processes, and troubleshooting
• Train Solution Consultants in partnership with the Product Optimization and Acceleration (PAO) team on payroll so they can scope, demo, and position deployment capabilities
• Support the payroll country development team directly on product and engineering work between implementation engagements

About You

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience building, shipping, and supporting production-grade code
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• Experience integrating software with external systems, APIs, and enterprise data sources
• 3-5+ Years experience on Workday Payroll

Other Qualifications

• Comfortable writing production code in one or more languages (for example, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, or Java), with a track record of taking a project from problem to shipped solution
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and modern deployment practices such as CI/CD, containers, and infrastructure as code
• Strong communication skills, comfortable partnering directly with customer stakeholders, including people without a technical background
• Able to work independently in ambiguous, fast-changing environments
• Experience creating training content or enabling other teams, such as Customer Experience or Solution Consulting, on technical or payroll concepts
• Willing to travel or work on-site with customers as needed
• Workday certifications required: Payroll

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